The Canadian social media giant Kik messaging app is finally calling it quits after months of legal scuffle with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over the lawsuit against ICO.
Kik Interactive CEO, Ted Livingstone, declared in his blog dated Sep 23, that the SEC is doing everything in its power to cease Kin’s existence. In its bid to classify all cryptocurrencies under securities, it is misquoting the facts, urging cryptocurrency exchanges to delist Kin and even trying to manipulate Kik’s image to make it seem evil, says the blog.
Kik messaging app bears the brunt of SEC lawsuit
Kik is battling SEC since June, over a lawsuit filed against its initial coin offering from 2017 which raised over one hundred million dollars ($100 million) through the sale of its token, Kin. According to the SEC, it constitutes as an unregistered securities offering as Kik, reportedly, failed to provide sufficient investment-related information to its investors who are legally entitled to receive it before making a decision.
Since the allegation, Kin token price has plummeted and dropped to as low as $0.0000105.
In its defense, the social media organization accused the SEC of tweaking the facts and tainting Kik’s image through false accusations that lack foundation entirely. Moreover, it executed a cryptocurrency funding campaign to bring about the much-needed capital to fight SEC over these claims. The campaign was taken over by Blockchain Association and managed to raise around five million dollars ($5 million).
Employees get pink-slipped
Unfortunately, Kik’s efforts to put up a fight against the SEC has gone in vain as it has finally decided to succumb to the alleged tactics, terminate the Kik messaging app and considerably reduce its headcount.
Besides laying off over seventy employees and reducing the Kik’s operations team to just nineteen core developers, Kik will focus on making Kin an internet currency and further explore the applications of the Kin token.
As Livingstone remarks, Kin will continue to develop its ecosystem and convert Kin users into buyers. He is confident that while the SEC has been successful in terminating Kik’s operations, a fight against the entire Kin’s ecosystem will be an impossible one to win.
